


True Love or Whatnot

by fleete



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Canon Era, Druids, Humor, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Tent Sex, Yule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 14:11:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleete/pseuds/fleete
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a momentous day, a Yuletide diplomatic meeting that presaged the beginning of peaceful relations between Camelot and the Druids.  </p><p>“Dear lord, when will they stop?” Arthur hissed next to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	True Love or Whatnot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Destina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destina/gifts).



> Thanks to C and J for cheerleading/audiencing/etc so wonderfully!
> 
>  **content notes** : less than ideal consent practices, mild somnophilia (also related to the less than ideal consent practices). Check the end notes if you'd like more information.

Merlin felt un-bound. The stars shone bright, the wind blew crisp, the Druid performers hummed low and comforting in the Old Tongue. They’d left the castle early this morning and had arrived at the Druid encampment at nightfall, and they’d been welcomed with as much pomp and circumstance as the Druids could muster. Merlin had not realized how trapped he’d felt in the castle until now. It was a momentous day, a Yuletide diplomatic meeting that presaged the beginning of peaceful relations between Camelot and the Druids. 

“Dear lord, when will they stop?” Arthur hissed next to him.

Merlin rolled his eyes. “Stop being so generous and welcoming?”

“Stop singing. That incessant droning is giving me a headache.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“I am.”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes, I AM.” And of course, the song abruptly ended in just enough time for Arthur’s “AM” to echo across the clearing where seventy Druids and thirty Camelot nobles were gathered. Everyone stared at Arthur.

“Uh.” He burst into applause. The knights and the rest joined him slowly. “Well done! Another!”

The performers in the clearing made way for another group, this one a set of three elderly women, grey hair spilling down their shoulders. “These songs have been translated into the new tongue, so that our guests might enjoy them as well.”

Arthur acknowledged that with a dip of his head.

“We can only hope,” he murmured out the side of his mouth.

The ladies started a song that was thankfully more similar to sort that Arthur is used to: a song that tells a story of a great high priestess. Merlin, however, shifted about nervously as the song described this woman: 

“And a great and high priestess was she  
The gods did know her words  
Her hands the fires did spread.”

Luckily, the emphasis shifted quickly to this priestess’s diplomatic skills, instead of magical ones. The singer told how the priestess united the warring clans to make one great magical community.

“Yet she was alone and desired a love  
A balm for heart and a touch for her loins.”

“What in the hell,” Arthur murmured, and some other Camelot nobles and knights were heard repeating the sentiment. Apparently Druid songs were a bit more seedy than were Camelot’s songs. The last time Merlin had heard a song mentioning a woman’s loins, it had been at a campfire with soldiers.

The song continued, and Merlin found himself spellbound, listening as the priestess searched high and low for a fitting partner. She found great leaders, great sorcerers, and even great “sexual artists” (there were some gasps at this point). But none of these suitors were quite right. The priestess’ faithful counselor always told her, “Keep open your eyes lest you see not,” and so the priestess kept looking.

Near the end of the song, the story took a predictable turn where the priestess finally looks upon her faithful counselor and says, “I saw you not.” It’s a satisfying ending, with the priestess and the counselor declaring their love. Merlin might have given a little sniffle. Arthur elbowed him in the side.

“Girl.”

“Shut up. You like it, too.”

The singer’s voice swelled, and Merlin refocused his attention just to hear the last bit. “Wait,” he said. “Did she just say—”

“The priestess shucked her robes and then  
The counselor shucked her own and they  
Both took their pleasure as women do  
With skin and mouth and hands.”

Arthur went bug-eyed. “The counselor’s a woman?”

The song ended pretty quickly after that—the love having been consummated so thoroughly. Apparently the priestess and counselor lived happily ever after, ruling together.

The Camelot delegation seemed to be caught between disapproval and nervous laughter.

There are more songs after that, none as titillating (to Camelot’s modest ears) but they were all as interesting: a woodsman with a magic axe, a girl who meets the goddess Morrigan, a trio of siblings who build a house for their mother out of flowers. Merlin remained agog, his cup of cider clutched between his heads, even forgetting to throw out retorts to Arthur’s occasional attempts to engage him.

*

Merlin woke up in the middle of the night because someone’s hand is on his bum.

“Uh.” The hand spread its fingers and squeezed. “Arthur?”

“Mmm,” Arthur replied from deep in his throat. The sound and the squeezing were having a rather interesting effect on Merlin’s heartbeat, and Merlin nearly jumped when Arthur stroked down his flank and back up to his arse.

“Can I have your thighs?” Arthur whispered.

Merlin intended to respond in the affirmative but it came out as a gusty and embarrassing sigh. It had been so very long. Merlin could hardly be blamed for getting excited.

Through some combination of their four hands, Merlin’s trousers went down around his knees, and Arthur’s cock was slipped between Merlin’s legs, helped with a judicious amount of Arthur’s spit. It all happened alarmingly fast, and Merlin tried to gather himself, to squeeze his eyes shut and settle into the sensations. Arthur’s hips jerked rhythmically against Merlin’s arse, one of his hands fisted in Merlin’s shirt, the other using Merlin’s hip as a handle, holding him in place. The friction turned his inner thighs warm and sensitive, and he had to shift his hips around to—oh. There. Arthur’s cock brushing over and over against Merlin’s sac.

All of it combined sloppily with Merlin’s memories of the same act—memories he’d frequently taken to bed with him, in fact—and he was fully hard without touching himself at all.

This was the fifth time. Merlin kept count. The first time they’d done this, it had been sloppy and silent, and they’d pretended it hadn’t happened the day after, even though it obviously _had_ , and their inability to make eye contact or carry basic conversations for half a day after had born witness to the fact. But Arthur had made a joke at some point, or Merlin had, who knows, and there had been laughter and relief. They were still who they were the night before. They were still friends. All was the same.

The second time had been a bit more deliberate, and Merlin had had the courage to finish himself off. The third time had been rather spectacular. (Arthur had accidentally spent a full minute fucking against Merlin's taint, and he’d seen stars.) The fourth time, they’d actually spoken to each other during the act.

Tonight, though, Arthur was all fire and desperation against his back, and Merlin easily fell out of recollection into the present.

“Don’t stop,” he whispered, reaching back for Arthur’s thigh with one hand and fisting his prick with another.

Arthur chose that moment to slow to a stop. Merlin dug his fingers into Arthur’s leg and pulled.

“Come _on_.”

“Do I…?” Arthur’s hand unclenches on Merlin’s hip and pats him, awkwardly. “Do I…not see you?”

“What in the ever-loving hell, Arthur.”

“I mean. You know. Like in the song.”

Merlin groaned and squeezed his erection. He was so hard, he hurt. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Fuck me.”

He’d never said that before, in so many words, and Arthur’s hip stuttered forward, his cock sliding deliciously between Merlin’s legs, and Merlin was sure that they were about to drop this stupid conversation and get back to the sex, but—

“The song. About the priestess and the counselor.”

“What about it?”

“You know.”

“I really don’t.”

“The counselor keeps saying, ‘Keep your eyes open lest you see not,’ and it’s because the priestess isn’t seeing her own counselor, who’s her true love or whatnot—”

“I…,” and then Merlin’s lust-addled brain finally caught up with what Arthur was trying to say. _Do I not see you?_ His heart sped up in a fit of panic. “Um.”

“I meant…,” and that was interesting, wasn’t it, how Arthur slowed down and allowed himself to search for words, in the dark of the tent. “It’s just. I know I make jokes about it, but you are my friend, and I…do not take that friendship lightly. So to speak.”

Merlin had no idea what to say to that, just stared at the gently waving fabric of the tent in front of him.

Arthur palmed up Merlin’s side. “I would not have you think I do this just for sport. That this was…dishonorable.”

Merlin wiggled his bottom more firmly against Arthur’s cock. “I’m feeling pretty honored at the moment, actually.”

Arthur laughed, despite his apparent seriousness, warm air against the back of Merlin’s neck. “But you understand what I’m saying.”

“Hardly ever,” Merlin retorted, but yes. Yes, he did.

He turned, slowly, in Arthur’s arms until they were face to face. It was too dark to see his features, but it was still the first time they’d been this close, this intimate: Arthur’s breath on his face, Arthur’s chest under his hands, Arthur’s cock resting sticky against his hipbone.

They breathed rough breaths together, and Arthur nosed against Merlin’s cheek, and jaw, and mouth, and they traded wet breaths for a moment more before Merlin got up the courage to close the gap.

They got halfway through what was undoubtedly the best kiss of Merlin's life when Arthur pulled away to say, "Right, but you understand what I'm--"

"Yes, yes, I'm your true love and whatnot. Can we fuck now?"

Arthur stilled, and Merlin thought perhaps he'd get away with it, but then there was a cool palm against Merlin's hot cheek.

"Are you _blushing_?" Arthur sounded delighted. His thumb swept a circle over Merlin's cheekbone.

"Shut up." But Merlin could already feel Arthur's smile, his mouth stretching against Merlin's lips, and he didn't _really_ want Arthur to shut up after all.

**Author's Note:**

>  **content notes** : Okay, so M/A start a pattern of having sex without really talking about it or acknowledging it, and in some of those encounters, Arthur's making assumptions about Merlin's implicit consent and waking him up with sexual touching, but his assumptions happen to be right on, since Merlin is VERY VERY into it. So even though everything turns out okay and consensual, their consent practices are poor.


End file.
